The present invention relates in general to automatic turkey nesting and egg gathering apparatus, and more particularly to a side-by-side array of a plurality of turkey nesting bays or nesting chambers having a trap and tripping wire gate structure controlling entry access to each of the associated nest bays together with a hen-ejecting means formed by a pivoted bottom for each bay, and a timed motor, cable and rail structure for concurrently raising the bottoms and concurrently shifting the wire gate structure to an open position for the whole array of nesting bays to cause the birds to be ejected from the nesting bays they have occupied. An egg collecting system is associated with the turkey nesting apparatus to receive eggs from the nesting bays and deliver them to a processing location.
Heretofore, turkey farming has become increasingly automated by providing laying nest facilities and egg gathering systems which enable poultrymen to maintain and care for larger and larger numbers of laying hens. For example, it is not uncommon for a single poultryman to have under his care as many as 50,000 or more hens. Typically the poultry nesting facilities are provided defining many side-by-side nesting chambers or nesting bays and associated motor operated egg gathering systems. Nesting chambers for such long plural nest devices typically have an open front and a nest-forming bottom wall which tilts toward a margin of the nesting chamber at the front or rear, more commonly adjacent the open front of the nesting chamber. Each nesting chamber is designed to accommodate one turkey hen at a time which enters the cage when it desires to lay an egg. When a hen lays an egg in the nest, the egg is deposited on a nest pad on the bottom panel of the nesting chamber and the egg gently rolls down the titled bottom of the nesting chamber toward the front edge, to be received on a conveyor of an egg collection or gathering system mounted adjacent the front edge of the tilted bottom wall. The eggs are then carried to a cleaning and packaging area by means of the conveyor belt as part of the egg collection system. A number of problems have been encountered in connection with such prior art structures such as hen injury caused by hens becoming trapped adjacent edges of the moveable bottom during its hen ejection motion and by structures which permit entry of a second hen into a nesting chamber while the chamber is already being occupied by a laying hen or by a hen which has already laid an egg but is attempting to remain sitting on the egg in order to hatch it.
An object of the present invention is the provision of a plural turkey or other fowl nesting device of the type previously described, having a special pivoted wire gate structure and mounting mechanism which, when a bird goes into the nest, closes the front access opening to the nesting bay behind the hen so that a second bird cannot get into the nesting bay while the first hen is still in the bay.
Another object of the present invention is the provision of a novel plural turkey or other fowl nesting system defining a long side-by-side array of individual nesting chambers, arranged in plural chamber modules or sections, each chamber having a wire gate structure of the type described in the preceding paragraph associated therewith, together with a hinged bottom on which the hen lays the egg. A cyclically operated timed motor, cable and connecting structure are provided for concurrently raising the bottoms of all of the nesting bays at selected time intervals to ensure all hens are expelled and that any eggs which have not rolled down the inclined nesting bay bottom to the egg collecting facility when the bottom occupies its normal position are deposited on the conveyor mechanism of the egg gathering system.
Another object of the present invention is the provision of a plural turkey or other fowl nesting system as described in any of the two immediately preceding paragraphs, wherein the nest bottoms are tilted upwardly and the wire gate structures shifted to the open position at a low selected speed to eject the birds from the nest slowly and easily so they will not be stressed, and wherein the tiltable bottom structure is then returned quickly to the normal lowered position while the cage structures remain in the open position to encourage additional turkeys to enter the nesting bays.
Other objects, advantages and capabilities of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention.